1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lid-opening/closing device that opens and closes a lid portion with respect to a container body in a storage container that stores therein an object to be stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a clean room of a factory manufacturing semiconductor devices or liquid crystal displays, for example, semiconductor wafers or glass substrates, for example, are conveyed while being stored in a storage container. Accordingly, when such objects to be stored are transferred between the storage container and each device, a lid portion needs to be opened and closed with respect to a container body by a lid-opening/closing device. To quickly and stably open and close such a lid portion with respect to a container body, various techniques have been proposed (see Japanese Patent No. 3180600, for example) in which, for example, a lid-opening/closing device is provided with a pressure-equalizing mechanism for equalizing pressures between the interior and the exterior of a storage container.
Because such a factory manufacturing semiconductor devices or liquid crystal displays described above urgently needs improvement in the efficiency of conveying various parts, improving the efficiency of transferring objects to be stored between storage containers and various devices is also very important.